1797 Large Cent question

I have a 1797 cent which is in about AG-3 condition....On the face of
the coin the letters "U.S." have been stamped in the center of the face
and off to the side the letters "CONN." are stamped....These stamps
appear to have been done long ago...Does anyone have any idea what this
could mean or when it could have been done?...Thanks

wrote in message
ups.com...
I have a 1797 cent which is in about AG-3 condition....On the face of
the coin the letters "U.S." have been stamped in the center of the face
and off to the side the letters "CONN." are stamped....These stamps
appear to have been done long ago...Does anyone have any idea what this
could mean or when it could have been done?...Thanks


I could have helped had it been a UK cartwheel 1797 penny countermarked by
Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. Billy

wrote:
I have a 1797 cent which is in about AG-3 condition....On the face of
the coin the letters "U.S." have been stamped in the center of the face
and off to the side the letters "CONN." are stamped....These stamps
appear to have been done long ago...Does anyone have any idea what this
could mean or when it could have been done?...Thanks
Sounds like a counterstamp confirming the coin is from the US, and that
the stamping was done in Connecticut. Many businesses counterstamped
coins early in our history. Sometimes that was done to confirm the
weight of the coin (people weighed copper cents!), sometimes to act as
advertising tokens (good for 1c trade at...). Some people collect such
counterstamped coins. I kind of like them, myself. Because the
counterstamps were often more strongly struck than the coins
themselves, they last much longer. A bit of Americana.

Daniel B. Wheeler